Welcome the new Borne Government
Welcome the new Borne Government
Who are the movers and shakers that will implement Emmanuel Macron’s political programme and lead the country for the foreseeable future?
Just a quick warning: Due to the length of this breakdown, there’s every chance that your email service will cut off a portion of the newsletter you receive to your inbox, so to get information on every member of the new government, read this directly on Substack!
With the promotion of Elizabeth Borne to the role of Prime Minister of the French Republic, there was a lot of anticipation regarding who would form the new French government.
If you want to read a profile of the new Prime Minister, you can read it below:
The government has clearly focused on gender parity, with 14 ministers being men and 14 ministers being women (including Élisabeth Borne)
However, let’s see who will be leading the country for the foreseeable future, who has been promoted, who has been shifted, and who has stayed exactly where they were.
Who’s who?
Those keeping their portfolio
Bruno Le Maire - Minister of Economy, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty
A graduate of the Ecole National d’Administration, Bruno Le Maire began his political career by working closely with Dominique de Villepin, following him across several ministries between 2002 and 2007, at which point he became director of the Prime Minister's cabinet.
A member of both l’Union pour un Mouvement Populaire then of Les Republicains, he was once the deputy for the Eure, became the Secretary of State for European affairs, and was moved to the post of minister of agriculture under successive François Fillon governments. In 2017, having joined La Republique en Marche, he was appointed Minister of the Economy by Edouard Philippe in 2017, and kept this role throughout the Emmanuel Macron quinquennat.
Gérald Darmanin - Minister of the Interior
Having initially held the post of Minister of Public Action and accounts under former Prime Minister Eduardo Philippe, he was the acting Minister of the Interior within the government of outgoing Prime Minister Jean Castex. A long-term actor within the French republican right, Gérald Darmanin joined the Gaullist Rassemblement pour la République at the age of 16, then led by one Jacques Chirac, and he stayed within the party as it became the UMP and then Les Republicans.
Having campaigned for this party over decades, he was the candidate in Tourcoing that took the city from the Parti Socialiste in April 2014, and was one of the prominent names who joined Emmanuel Macron in May 2017.
Eric Dupond-Moretti - Minister of Justice
A Franco-Italian criminal lawyer accustomed to highly mediatised trials, Eric Dupont-Moretti was appointed Keeper of the Seals in 2020 when Jean Castex became Prime Minister. His nickname in the courtrooms was “Acquittator”, due to his high acquittal rate as a criminal defence lawyer.
A judicial hardliner, He has overseen a sharp increase in the budget that is earmarked for the French judicial system, particularly after reports were released detailing the lengthy procedures. He is also no stranger to political action, having successfully defended a bill strengthening the severity of the judicial sentencing process in front of the French Parliament, having publicly stated that the judiciary response to crime in France is "too weak".
Clément Beaune - Minister Delegate in charge of Europe
A graduate of the Paris Institute of Political Studies and the Ecole National d’Administration, he began his career as a senior civil servant at the Ministry of the Economy in 2009, a role in which he impressed and which led to him becoming an adviser to Socialist Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault between 2012 to 2014. He then spent a short period of time as Economic, Financial and Monetary Affairs advisor to the French Permanent Representation in Brussels in 2014 before returning to the Ministry of the Economy
In 2016 he joined the cabinet of the Minister of the Economy Emmanuel Macron with whom he became friends, before moving on to become deputy to the general manager of ADP Management. After the election of Emmanuel Macron in 2017, he was recruited to become the special adviser to the Presidency of the Republic, focusing on European politics and the G20. In July 2020, he was appointed Secretary of State for European Affairs in the government of Jean Castex.
Those moving ministries
Amélie de Montchalin - Minister for Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion
A student of HEC Paris in 2005, de Montchalin obtained her master's degree in public administration from Harvard in 2014. The young economist at Exane BNP Paribas joined La République en Marche December 2016 due to what she called the “start-up” aspect of the party, bringing with her the experience of having designed Alain Juppé's economic program in the lead up to his defeat against Francois Fillon in the right-wing primary.
Elected as the MP for Essonne in 2017 under the LaREM ticket, she was appointed the Secretary of State of European Affairs in March 2019, subsequently becoming the Minister for Transformation and the Civil Service in July 2020.
Sébastien Lecornu - Minister of the Armed Forces
The former national secretary of the UMP, Sébastien Lecornu joined LaREM in 2017. He entered the government as the secretary of state attached to the minister of ecological transition, before becoming minister of local authorities in 2018. In 2020, he was appointed Minister of Overseas in the Castex government. He is also president of the departmental council of Eure. He is a lieutenant in the operational reserve of the national gendarmerie.
Brigitte Bourguignon - Minister of Health and Prevention
Formerly a deputy from Pas-de-Calais for the Parti Socialiste, Bourguignon joined LaREM in 2017 and ran for a second term under the party ticket. From 2020, Minister Delegate for Personal Independence in the Ministry of Health, and forms the core of the social-leaning movement with the Presidential Majority.
Olivier Dussopt - Minister of Labour, Full Employment and Integration
A supporter of Manuel Valls during the socialist primary of 2017, he campaigned in Ardèche under the Socialist Party label against the LaREM candidate.
Despite this, in November 2017 he was appointed as a Secretary of State in the Philippe government, and announced that he was leaving the PS. Following this, he was promoted to the role of Minister in charge of action and public accounts and remained her through both the Philippe and Castex governments. He is currently the president of the center-left party Territories of Progress, which sits within the Presidential Majority.
Marc Fesneau - Minister of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty
Vice-President of MoDEM, Marc Fesneau was mayor of Marchenoir from 2008 to 2017, and waS regional councilor of the Centre-Val de Loire from 2004 to 2010, a mandate which he recovered in 2021. Elected as the deputy for Loir-et-Cher in 2017, he is the president of the MoDem group in the National Assembly.
In October 2018, he was appointed as minister in charge of relations with the Parliament and stayed until the end of the first Macron quinquennat.
Agnès Pannier-Runacher - Minister for Energy Transition
Another graduate of ENA as well as HEC, Pannier-Runacher is a senior civil servant, finance inspector and company director, she was one of Emmanuel Macron's first supporters at the launch of his movement. In 2018, she was appointed Secretary of State to the Minister of Economy and Finance, under the Philippe II government. She was also part of the Jean Castex government, serving as Minister Delegate to the Minister of Economy, Finance and Recovery, in charge of Industry.
Olivier Véran - Minister delegate in charge of relations with Parliament and democratic life
Someone who became a favourite for many (mostly internationally after a certain photo), he was initially a member of the Socialist Party, and was the deputy to the MP Geneviève Fioraso, who he replaced in Parliament when she was appointed minister.
One of the initial supporters of La République en Marche in 2017, he was elected under the party ticket, and after the resignation of Agnès Buzyn in February 2020, he became Minister of Solidarity and Health, tasked with handling global Covid-19 crisis.
Gabriel Attal - Minister Delegate in charge of Public Accounts
A socialist activist since his time at Sciences Po Paris, Attal became an advisor in the cabinet of the Minister of Health Marisol Touraine in 2012. In 2014, he was elected as the opposition municipal councilor in Vanves, and following this, he was one of the early supported of LaREM in 2016. Running as the candidate for the party in Hauts-de-Seine in 2017, he was elected as deputy, and in 2018, he joined the Philippe government as Secretary of State to the Minister of Education. Within the Castex government, he was the government spokesperson.
Franck Riester - Minister Delegate for Foreign Trade and Attractiveness
A militant for the UMP from a young age, he was elected as deputy for the party in 2007 and was also the mayor of Coulommiers.
He was the acting rapporteur on the Hadopi 1 and 2 laws, which focused on the government response against the illegal downloading of cultural works over the Internet. Re-elected as the deputy for Agir in 2017, he joined the government in 2018 as Minister of Culture, which he left in 2020.
Olivia Grégoire - Government Spokesperson
A graduate of Sciences Po Paris and ESSEC, Olivia Grégoire has a strong communication background, working most notably for DDB France, Havas and for the Etalab mission. Eventually launching her own firm, Olicare, she advised several right-wing ministers including Xavier Bertrand and Philippe Bas.
Utilising her expertise of political communications, she ran for LaREM in 2017 and won her seat in Paris. From July 2020, she was Secretary of State in charge of the social, solidaire and responsible economy in Castex government.
New ministers
Catherine Colonna - Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs
The ambassador of France to Italy as well as the United Kingdom, and hailing from the Chiraquian right of French politics , Colonna is another successful Enarque who has acted as a both an adviser within a ministerial cabinet, and then from 2005 to 2007, as Minister Delegate for European Affairs herself, within the government of de Villepin.
For nine years within the presidency of Jacques Chirac, Catherine Colonna was the spokesperson for the Elysée, and according the recent discussions, was the lead candidate to be Emmanuel Macron’s Prime Minister up until the very last moment.
Damien Abad - Minister of Solidarity, Autonomy and People with Disabilities
A veteran from the Union pour la Démocratie Française, Abad is an old-school French centrist who graduated from Sciences Po Paris.
Moving from the UDF, he joined the New Center and the Union for a Popular Movement in 2012, having previously been elected as an MEP in 2009. He has been a deputy for Ain since 2012, and acted as President for the group at the National Assembly from 2019 until 2022. The reason for this? His appointment to the French government.
Stanislas Guerini - Minister of Transformation and the Civil Service
Initially a member of the Socialist Party who was close to Dominique Strauss-Khan, Guerini comes from the private sector where he worked as a consultant in several organisations covering several sectors, Guerini joined LaREM in 2017 as the elected representative in the third district of Paris. During the 2017 Presidential campaign, Guerini oversaw several key parts of the campaign and the public events that were held.
Building upon this, he eventually went on to become the general delegate of LaREM in 2018, managing a lot of the day-to-day work and representation of the political movement. In May 2022, he took on the rule of secretary general and treasurer of Ensemble!, bringing in his expertise to build a hopefully successful campaign.
Yaël Braun-Pivet - Minister for Overseas Territories
A lawyer from 1996 to 2003, Yaël Braun-Pivet traveled the world with her expatriate spouse abroad until 2012, where she returned to France and joined Restos du Coeur, an organisation that supports those in need with necessary food items, on a full time basis.
A member of the Socialist Party in the early 2000s, she was a militant for the party until she joined LaREM in 2016. Running and being elected as the MP for Yvelines in 2017, she was appointed president of the law commission at the National Assembly, and most notably, she chaired the commission inquiry into the Benalla affair.
Christophe Béchu - Minister delegate in charge of local authorities
A long-time militant for the Republican right, Christophe Béchu earned his first post when he was elected as municipal councilor of Avrillé in 1995 for the UMP label. Staying within the region for almost the entirety of his career, he eventually became President of the General Council of Maine-et-Loire (2004-2014), MEP (2009-2011), Senator of Maine-et-Loire (2011-2017), Regional Councilor for Pays-de-la-Loire (2010-2011) and mayor of Angers since 2014.
In 2017, he gave up supporting the then Presidential candidate for Les Republicans, François Fillon, and left the party to become an independent. However, in 2021, he became the secretary general of Horizons, the party founded and led by Edouard Philippe.
Justine Benin - Secretary of State in charge of the sea
Having previously been the Socialist Party’s vice-president of the Guadeloupe region from 2010 to 2015, and then a socialist departmental councilor from 2015 to 2020, Benin started her professional career working on the judicial protection of young people when she worked for Pôle emploi in both Ile-de-France and Guadeloupe.
Elected for MoDem in the 2nd constituency of Guadeloupe in 2017, she has since been working within the presidential majority as part of the centre-left grouping that developed within.
Chrysoula Zacharopoulou - Secretary of State for Development, Francophonie and International Partnerships, attached to the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs
A Franco-Greek MEP elected in 2019, Chrysoula Zacharopoulou is a gynaecologist who has worked within the Renaissance Europeenne grouping within the Renew Europe Group. Having co-founded the Info-Endometriosis association, she initially returned to practicing during the COVID-19 crisis and was tasked by the Minister of Solidarity and Health, Olivier Véran, with a mission to develop the national strategy against endometriosis, a topic she has specialised in.
Political Newcomers
Pap Ndiaye - Minister of National Education and Youth
Someone who you may have heard of in recent days due to the claims of scandal, Ndiay is a historian and Professor at Science Po who specialises in the philosophy of race. Working on the topic of minorities with a particular focus on those from African and Caribbean backgrounds, and the connecting theories from the United States, he has never held a ministerial position.
Since 2021, he has been the head of the Palais de la Porte-Dorée and the Museum of the History of Immigration. He is also the acting chairman of the “Images of Diversity” aid commission at the National Center for Cinema and Moving Image (CNC).
Sylvie Retailleau - Minister of Higher Education and Research
A Physicist who trained at the Ecole Normale Supérieure, Sylvie Retailleau was a researcher at the University of Paris-XI, from 1992 to 2001 where she specialised in microelectronics. She was appointed president of the university in 2016, before taking the helm of the new Paris Saclay University, which integrated Paris-XI within its structures.
Rima Abdul-Malak - Culture minister
The former cultural advisor to the town hall of Paris who initially worked with Bertrand Delanoë and then with Anne Hidalgo, she was most recently the cultural and communication advisor to President Emmanuel Macron. A graduate in political science, development and international cooperation from a Franco-Lebanese background, she was director of "Clowns sans frontières" from 2001 to 2007.
Amélie Oudéa-Castera - Minister of Sports and the Olympic and Paralympic Games
Having once been a high-level tennis player, Oudéa-Castéra is also a former Enarque and is a graduate from ESSEC. Having worked as both a referendum advisor to the French Court of Auditors, and having once been a director at AXA, she has been the acting general manager of the French Tennis Federation since 2021.
Her professional history also includes time as a director in the Carrefour Group, the ShowRoomPrive Groupe, and the Plastic Omnium group, a position she has held since 2013 and maintains to this day.
In 2018, she joined the Eurazeo supervisory board and co-founded the Rénovons le sport français association.
Isabelle Rome - Minister Delegate in charge of equality between women and men, diversity and equal opportunities
Isabelle Rome has been a senior official focusing on gender equality at the Ministry of Justice, and has been an inspector of justice since 2018.
A trained magistrate, she was an investigative judge at the Paris tribunal de grande instance, vice-president of the instruction at the High Court of Amiens, and judge of freedoms and detention at the High Court of Pontoise from 2001. Between 2000 and 2002, she was technical adviser in charge of the judicial protection of youth at the office of then Keeper of the Seals, Marylise Lebranchu.
Charlotte Caubel - Secretary of State in charge of children
A graduate of Sciences Po and the Ecole Nationale de la Magistrature, Charlotte Caubel has held numerous positions within the French judiciary. Having been the justice advisor to Prime Minister Edouard Philippe between 2017 and 2020, she then became the director of the judicial protection of youth at the Ministry of Justice.
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